with it and make them wiser in the mean time I shall inform him what I have found that the Fathers never except against that method but appeal frequently from the slanderous reports and misrepresentations which were made of their Doctrine to the Books of Scripture as the true standard of it § 8. Another evidence that Christians in all Ages since the Apostles times have owned the Scriptures for the Rule of their Faith is That the Fathers in their Homilies did use constantly to declare to the People what they were to believe and what they were to practise out of the Scriptures which had been most absurd and sensless had they believed not the Scriptures but something else to have been the Rule of Faith and Manners For what could tend more to the seducing of the People from Mr. S's supposed Rule of Faith Oral Tradition than to make a daily practise of declaring and confirming the Doctrins of the Christian Faith from the Scriptures Had the antient Fathers been right for Mr. S's way they would not have built their Doctrine upon Scripture perhaps not have mentioned it for fear of giving the people an occasion to grow familiar with so dangerous a Book but rather as their more prudent Posterity have done would have lock'd it up from the people in an unknown Tongue and have set open the stores of good wholsome Traditions and instead of telling them as they do most frequently thus saith the Scripture would only have told them this is the voice of the essential Church thus it hath been delivered down by hand to us from our Forefathers § 9. I might add for a Third evidence the great malice of the Enemies and Persecutors of Christianity against this Book and their cruel endeavours to extort it out of the hands of Christians and destroy it out of the World that by this means they might extirpate Christianity For it seems they thought that the abolishing of this Book would have been the ruine of that Religion But according to Mr. S's opinion their malice wanted wit for had all the Bibles in the World been burnt Christian Religion would nevertheless have been entirely preserv'd and safely transmitted down to us by sense written in mens hearts with the good help of of Mr. S's Demonstration Nay their Church would have been a great gainer by it For this Occasion and Parent of all Heresie the Scripture being once out of the way she might have had all in her own hands and by leading the people in the safe paths of Tradition and consequently of Science might have made them wise enough to obey Well but suppose the Persecutors of Christianity mistook themselves in their design how came the Christians in those days to be so tenacious of this Book that rather than deliver it they would yield up themselves to torments and death And why did they look upon those who out of fear delivered up their Books as Apostates and Renouncers of Christianity if they had not thought this Book to be the great Instrument of their Faith and Salvation and if it had really been of no greater consideration than Mr. Wh. and Mr. S. would make it Why should they be so loth to part with a few unsens'd Characters waxen natur'd words fit to be play'd upon diversly by quirks of wit that is apt to blunder and confound but to clear little or nothing Why should they value their lives at so cheap a rate as to throw them away for a few insignificant scrawls and to shed their blood for a little Ink variously figured in a Book Did they not know that the safety of Christianity did not depend upon this Book Did no Christian then understand that which according to Mr. S. no Christian can be ignorant of viz. that not the Scripture but unmistakeable indefectible Oral Tradition was the Rule of Faith Why did they not consider that though this Letter Rule of Hereticks had been consum'd to ashes yet their Faith would have lain safe and been preserved entire in its * Spiritual Causes Men's minds the noblest pieces in Nature Some of them indeed did deliver up their Books and were call'd Traditores and I have some ground to believe that these were the only Traditionary Christians of that time and that the rest were Confessors and Martyrs for the Letter Rule And if this be not evidence enough that the Scriptures have always been acknowledged by Christians for the Rule of Faith I shall when I come to examine his Testimonies for Tradition with the good leave of his distinction between Speculators and Testifiers prove by most express Testimony that it was the general opinion of the Fathers That the Scriptures are the Rule of Christian Faith and then if his demonstration of the infalliblity of Tradition will enforce that as Testifiers they must nesds have spoken otherwise who can help it SECT IV. § 1. HAving thus laid down the Protestant Rule of Faith with the grounds of it all that now remains for me to do towards the clear and full stating of the Controversie between us is to take notice briefly and with due limitations 1. How much the Protestants do allow to Oral Tradition Secondly What those things are which Mr. S thinks fit to attribute to his Rule of Faith which we see no cause to attribute to ours And when this is done any one may easily discern how far we differ § 2. 1. How much Protestants do allow to Oral Tradition First We grant that Oral Tradition in some circumstances may be a sufficient way of conveying a Doctrine but withall we deny that such circumstances are now in being In the first Ages of the World when the credenda or Articles of Religion and the agenda or Precepts of it were but few and such as had the evidence of Natural light When the World was contracted into a few Families in comparison and the age of man ordinarily extended to six or seven hundred years it is easie to imagine how such a doctrine in such circumstances might have been propagated by Oral Tradition without any great change or alterations Adam lived till Methuselah was above two hundred years old Methuselah lived till Sem was near an hundred and Sem out-liv'd Abraham So that this Tradition needed not pass through more than two hands betwixt Adam and Abraham But though this way was sufficient to have preserved Religion in the world if men had not been wanting themselves yet we find it did not prove effectual For through the corruption and negligence of men after the Flood if not before when the world began to multiply and the age of man was shortned the knowledg and worship of the one true God was generally lost in the world And so far as appears by Scripture-History the only Record we have of those times when God called out Abraham from Vr of the Chaldees the whole world was lapsed into Polytheisme and Idolatry Therefore for the greater security of Religion
know that these are the Books of Scripture yet these Books are the next and immediate means whereby we come to know what is Christs Doctrine and consequently what we are to believe § 8. Nor doth this Concession make Oral Tradition to be the Rule of Faith by a parity of Reason as if because we acknowledge that Oral Tradition can with sufficient certainty transmit a Book to After ages we must therefore grant that it can with as much certainty convey a doctrine consisting of several Articles of Faith nay very many as Mr. White acknowledges and many Laws and Precepts of Life So because Oral Tradition sufficiently assures us that this is Magna Charta and that the Statute-Book in which are contain'd those Laws which it concerns every man to be skilful in therefore by like parity of Reason it must follow that Tradition it self is better than a Book even the best way imaginable to convey down such Laws to us Mr. S. saith expresly it is but how truly I appeal to experience and the wisdom of our Law-givers who seem to think otherwise Tradition is already defin'd to us a delivery down from hand to hand of the sense and faith of Fore-fathers i. e. of the Gospel or message of Christ. Now suppose any Oral message consisting of an hundred particularities were to be delivered to an hundred several persons of different degrees of understanding and memory by them to be conveyed to an hundred more who were to convey it to others and so onwards to a hundred descents Is it probable this Message with all the particularities of it would be as truly conveyed through so many mouths as if it were written down in so many Letters concerning which every Bearer should need to say no more than this That it was delivered to him as a Letter written by him whose name was subscribed to it I think it not probable though the mens lives were concerned every one for the faithful delivery of his Errand or Letter For the Letter is a message which no man can mistake in unless he will but the Errand so difficult and perplexed with its multitude of particulars that it is an equal wager against every one of the Messengers that he either forgets or mistakes something in it it is ten thousand to one that the first Hundred do not all agree in it it is a Million to one that the next Succession do not all deliver it truly for if any one of the first Hundred mistook or forgot any thing it is then impossible that he that received it from him should deliver it right and so the farther it goes the greater change it is liable to Yet after all this I do not say but it may be demonstrated in Mr. S's way to have more of certainty in it than the Original Letter § 9. Thirdly We allow That the Doctrine of Christian Religion hath in all Ages been preached to the People by the Pastors of the Church and taught by Christian Parents to their Children but with great difference by some more plainly and truly and perfectly by others with less care and exactness according to the different degrees of ability and integrity in Pastors or Parents and likewise with very different success according to the different capacities and dispositions of the Learners We allow likewise That there hath been a constant course of visible actions conformable in some measure to the Principles of Christianity but then we say that those outward acts and circumstances of Religion may have undergone great variations and received great change by addition to them and defalcation from them in several Ages That this not only is possible but hath actually happened I shall shew when I come to answer his Demonstrations Now that several of the the main Doctrines of Faith contained in the Scriptute and actions therein commanded have been taught and practised by Christians in all Ages as the Articles summed up in the Apostles Creed the use of the two Sacraments is a good evidence so far that the Scriptures contain the Doctrine of Christian Religion But then if we consider how we come to know that such points of Faith have been taught and such external Actions practised in all Ages it is not enough to say there is a present multitude of Christians that profess to have received such Doctrines as ever believed and practised and from hence to infer that they were so the inconsequence of which Argument I shall have a better occasion to shew afterwards But he that will prove this to any mans satisfaction must make it evident from the best Monuments and Records of several Ages that is from the most Authentick Books of those times that such Doctrines have in all those Ages been constantly and universally taught and practised But then if from those Records of former times it appear that other Doctrines not contained in the Scriptures were not taught and practised universally in all Ages but have crept in by degrees some in one Age and some in another according as Ignorance and Superstition in the People Ambition and Interest in the chief Pastors of the Church have ministred occasion and opportunity and that the Innovators of these Doctrines and Practises have all along pretended to confirm them out of Scripture as the acknowledged Rule of Faith and have likewise acknowledged the Books of Scripture to have descended without any material corruption or alteration all which will sufficiently appear in the process of my Discourse then cannot the Oral and practical Tradition of the present Church concerning any Doctrine as ever believed and practised which hath no real foundation in Scripture be any argument against these Books as if they did not fully and clearly contain the Christian Doctrine And to say the Scripture is to be interpreted by Oral and Practical Tradition is no more reasonable than it would be to interpret the antient Books of the Law by the present practise of it which every one that compares things fairly together must acknowledg to be full of deviations from the antient Law SECT V. § 1. 2 dly HOw much more he attributes to his Rule of Faith than we think fit to attribute to ours 1. We do not say that it is impossible in the nature of the thing that this Rule should fail that is either that these Books should cease to descend or should be corrupted This we do not attribute to them because there is no need we should We believe the providence of God will take care of them and secure them from being either lost or materially corrupted yet we think it very possible that all the Books in the World may be burnt or otherwise destroyed All that we affirm concerning our Rule of Faith is that it is abundantly sufficient if men be not wanting to themselves to convey the Christian Doctrine to all successive Ages and we think him very unreasonable that expects that God should do more than what is abundantly
and if so notwithstanding whatever Mr. S. can demonstrate to the contrary that age might have believed otherwise than the immediately preceding did For let us but suppose that all necessary doctrines of faith were betimes recorded in the Church in Books universally received by the Christians of the first ages is it not possible that age which first embraced these Books might deliver them to posterity as the rule of their faith and so down from one age to another and doth it not hence follow that the rule of faith is quite different from a meer oral tradition Let Mr. S. then either shew it impossible that the doctrines of faith should be written or that being written they should be universally received or that being universally received in one age they should not be delivered to the next or being delivered to the next those Books should not be looked on as containing the rule of faith in them or though they were so yet that still oral tradition was wholly relied on as the rule of faith and then I shall freely grant that Mr. S. hath attempted something towards the proof of this new hypothesis But as things now stand it is so far from being self-evident that the Church hath always gone upon this principle that we find it looked on as a great novelty among them in their own Church and it would be a rare thing for a new invention to have been the sense of the Church in all ages which if it hath been the strength of it is thereby taken away But let us suppose that the Church did proceed upon this principle that nothing was to be embraced but what was derived by tradition from the Apostles how doth it thence follow that nothing could be admitted into the Church but what was really so derived from them Do we not see in the world at this day that among those who own this principle contradictory propositions are believed and both sides tell us it is on this account because their doctrine was delivered by the Apostles doth not the Greek Church profess to believe on the account of tradition from the Apostles as well as the Latin If that tradition failed in the Greek Church which was preserved in the Latin either Mr. S. must instance on his own principles in that age which conspired to deceive the next or he must acknowledg that while men own tradition they may be deceived in what the foregoing age taught them and consequently those things may be admitted as doctrines coming from the Apostles which were not so and some which did may be lost and yet the pretence of tradition remain still What self-evidence then can there be in this principle when two parts of the Church may both own it and yet believe contradictions on the account of it It is then worth our enquiring what self-evidence this is which Mr. S. speaks so much of which is neither more nor less but that men in all ages had eyes ears and other senses also common reason and as much memory as to remember their own names and frequently inculcated actions Which is so very reasonable a postulatum that I suppose none who enjoy any of these will deny it Let us therefore see how he proceeds upon it If you disprove this I doubt we have lost mankind the subject we speak of and till you disprove it neither I nor any man in his wits can doubt that this rule depending on testifying that is sense or experience can possibly permit men to be deceivable Big words indeed but such as evidence that all men who are in their wits do not constantly use them For I pray Sir what doth Mr S. think of the Greek Church Had not those in it eyes ears and other senses as well as in the Latin Do not they pretend and appeal to what they received from their Fore-fathers as well as the Latins It seems then a deception is possible in the case of testifying and therefore this doth more than permit men to be deceivable for here hath been an actual deception on one side or other But we need not fear losing mankind in this for the possibility of error supposeth mankind to continue still and if we take away that we may sooner lose it than by the contrary But what repugnancy can we imagine to humane nature that men supposing doctrines of faith to come down from Christ or his Apostles should yet mistake in judging what those doctrines are Had not men eyes and ears and common sense in Christ and the Apostles times And yet we see even then the doctrine of Christ was mistaken and is it such a wonder it should be in succeeding ages Did not the Nazarenes mistake in point of circumcision the Corinthians as to the resurrection and yet the mean time agree in this that Christs doctrine was the rule of faith or that they ought to believe nothing but what came from him Did not the Disciples themselves err even while they were with Christ and certainly had eyes and ears and common sense as other men have concerning some great articles of Christian faith viz. Christs passion resurrection and the nature of his Kingdom If then such who had the greatest opportunities imaginable and the highest apprehensions of Christ might so easily mistake in points of such moment what ground have we to believe that succeeding ages should not be liable to such misapprehensions And it was not meerly the want of clear divine revelation which was the cause of their mistakes for these things were plain enough to persons not possessed with prejudices but those were so strong as to make them apprehend things quite another way than they ought to do So it was then and so it was in succeeding ages for let Parents teach what they pleased for matters of faith yet prejudice and liableness to mistake in Children might easily make them misapprehend either the nature or weight of the doctrines delivered to them So that setting aside a certain way of recording the matters of faith in the Books of Scripture and these preserved entire in every age it is an easie matter to conceive how in a short time Christian Religion would have been corrupted as much as ever any was in the world For when we consider how much notwithstanding Scripture the pride passion and interests of men have endeavoured to deface Christian Religion in the world what would not these have done if there had been no such certain rule to judg of it by Mr. S. imagins himself in repub Platonis but it appears he is still in faece Romuli he fancies there never were nor could be any differences among Christians and that all Christians made it their whole business to teach their posterity matters of faith and that they minded nothing in the world but the imprinting that on their minds that they might have it ready for their Children and that all Parents had equal skill and fidelity in delivering matters of
he never hear of such a thing as the Scripture or is it so hard to find it But if he hath heard of it I intreat him to resolve me these Questions 1. Whether he doth not believe that the Books of the New Testament were written at such a time when the matters of fact therein recorded were capable of being throughly examined which he cannot deny upon his own principle for tradition being then infallible as to the doctrine of Christ the writers of these Books cannot be conceived to deliver it amiss unless they resolved to contradict the present tradition of the Church which if they had done those Books could never have found any reception among Christians If tradition then convey the doctrine of Christ infalilbly these Books must convey it infallibly because they contain in them the infallible tradition of the first age of the Christian Church and were written at the time when many persons living had been able to disprove any thing contained therein repugnant to truth And that these Books were written by those persons whose names they bear I appeal to Mr S's own rule Tradition for if that be infallible in any thing it must be in this and if one age could conspire to deceive another in a matter of such concernment what security can be had that it may not do so in all other things 2. Whether he believes that those whose intention was to write an account of the life actions and doctrine of Christ did leave any thing out of their Books which did relate to them as of concernment for us to believe For upon Mr. S's principles any one may easily know what the tradition of the Church is and especially such certainly who were either present themselves at the matters of fact or heard them from those who were and what satisfaction can any one desire greater than this But the question is whether this testimony were not more safely deposited in the Church to be conveyed by word of mouth than it could be by being committed to writing by such who were eye and ear witnesses of the actions and doctrine of Christ Upon which I advance some further Queries 3. If oral Tradition were the more certain way why was any thing written at all It may be Mr. S. will tell us for moral instructions and to give precepts of good life but then why may not these be as infallibly conveyed by tradition as doctrines of faith And why then were any matters of fact and points of faith inserted in the Books of the New Testament By which it certainly appears that the intention of writing them was to preserve them to posterity Let Mr. S. tell me whether it was consistent with the wisdom of men much less with the wisdom of an infinite Being to imploy men to do that which might be far better done another way and when it is done can give no satisfaction to the minds of men 4. Whether those things which are capable of being understood when they are spoken cease to be so when they are written For Mr. S. seems to understand those terms of a living voice and dead letters in a very strict and rigorous manner as though the sense were only quick when spoken and became buried in dead letters But Mr. S. seems with the sagacious Indian to admire how it is possible for dead letters and unsenc'd characters to express mens meanings as well as words I cannot enter into Mr. S's apprehension how 24 letters by their various disposition can express matters of faith And yet to increase the wonder he writes about matters of faith while he is proving that matters of faith cannot be conveyed by writing So that Mr. S's own writing is the best demonstration against himself and he confutes his own Sophistry with his fingers as Diogenes did Zeno's by his motion For doth Mr. S. hope to perswade men that tradition is a rule of faith by his Book or not if not to what purpose doth he write if he doth then it is to be hoped some matters of faith may be intelligibly conveyed by writing especially if Mr. S. doth it But by no means we are to believe that ever the Spirit of God can do it For whatever is written by men assisted by that is according to him but a heap of dead letters and insignificant characters when Mr. S. the mean while is full of sense and demonstration Happy man that can thus out-do infinite wisdom and write far beyond either Prophets or Apostles But if he will condescend so far as to allow that to inspired persons which he confidently believes of himself viz. that he can write a Book full of sense and that any ordinary capacity may apprehend the design of it our controversie is at an end for then matters of faith may be intelligibly and certainly conveyed to posterity by the Books of Scripture and if so there will be no need of any recourse to oral tradition 5. If the Books of Scripture did not certainly intelligibly convey all matters of faith what made them be received with so much veneration in the first ages of the Christian Church which were best able to judg of the truth of the matters contained in them and the usefulness of the Books themselves And therein we still find that appeals were made to them that they thought themselves concerned to vindicate them against all objections of Heathens and others and the resolution of faith was made into them and not tradition as I have already manifested and must not repeat 6. Whether it be in the least credible since the Books of Scripture were supposed to contain the doctrines of faith that every age of the Church should look on it self as obliged absolutely to believe the doctrine of the precedent by virtue of an oral-tradition For since they resolved their faith into the written Books how is it possible they should believe on the account of an oral tradition Although then the Apostles did deliver the doctrine of Christ to all their Disciples yet since the records of it were embraced in the Church men judged of the truth or falsehood of doctrines by the conveniency or repugnancy of them to what was contained in those Books By which we understand that the obligation to believe what was taught by the precedent age did not arise from the oral tradition of it but by the satisfaction of the present age that the doctrine delivered by it was the same with that contained in Scripture It is time now to return to Mr. S. who proceeds still to manifest this obligation in posterity to believe what was delivered as matter of faith by the precedent age of the Church but the force of all is the same still viz. that otherwise one age must conspire to deceive the next But the inconsequence of that I have fully shewed already unless he demonstrates it impossible for errors to come in any other way For if we reduce the substance of
can write plainly and intelligibly and that this Book which he hath endited is so written and doth not depend upon Tradition for its sense and interpretation then the most scurrilous language is not bad enough for the Scriptures then what are those Sacred Writings but Ink variously figured in a Book unsensed Characters waxen natur'd words not yet sensed nor having any certain Interpreter but fit to be plaid upon diversly by quirks of wit that is apt to blunder and confound but to clear little or nothing These with many other disgraceful terms he very liberally bestows upon Divine Oracles the consideration whereof did it not minister too much horrour would afford some comfort for by this kind of rude usage so familiar with him towards his Adversaries one may reasonably conjecture that he doth not reckon the Scriptures among his Friends § 9. And whereas he saith That the Scriptures have preserv'd many particular passages which because their source or first attestation was not universal nor their nature much practical might possibly bave been lost in their conveyance down by Tradition this is impossible according to his Hypothesis For if neither the Scriptures letter nor the certain sense of it as to the main body of Christian Doctrine could have been secured without Oral Tradition that is if we could not have known that those passages which contain the main points of Christs Doctrine either had been written by men divinely inspired or what the sense of them was but from the consonancy and agreement of those passages with the Doctrine which was orally preached by the Apostles how can we be certain either of the letter or sense of other particular passages which must necessarily want this confirmation from Oral Tradition because their first attestation was not universal nor their nature much practical Nay his discourse plainly implies that we can have no security at all either of the letter or sense of any other parts of Scripture but only those which are coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine as is evident from these words Tradition established the Church is provided of a certain and infallible Rule to preserve a copy of the Scriptures Letter truly significative of Christs sense as far as it is coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine preached at first because sense writ in mens hearts by Tradition can easily guide them to correct the alteration of the outward letter This I perceive plainly is the thing they would be at they would correct the outward letter of Scripture by sense written in their hearts and then instead of leaving out the second Commandement they would change it into a precept of giving due worship to Images according to the Council of Trent and a thousand other alterations they must make in the Bible to make it truly significative of the sense of their Church But surely the outward letter of other passages of Scripture which were not intended to signifie points of Faith is equally liable to alterations and yet the Church is not by Tradition provided of any way to correct these alterations when they happen because Tradition doth as this Corollary implies only furnish the Church with a certain and infallible Rule of preserving a copy of the Scriptures letter so far as it is coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine § 10. Again he tells us Tradition established the Church is provided of a certain infallible Rule to interpret Scripture letter by so as to arrive certainly at Christs sense as far as the letter concerns the body of Christian Doctrine preached at first or points requisite to Salvation So that whatever he may attribute to Scripture for fashions sake and to avoid Calumny with the Vulgar as he says very ingenuously in his explication of the 15 th Corollary nevertheless 't is plain that according to his own Hypothesis he cannot but look upon it as perfectly useless and pernicious That 't is altogether useless according to his Hypothesis is plain for the main body of Christian Doctrine is securely conveyed to us without it and it can give no kind of confirmation to it because it receives all at its confirmation from it only the Church is ever and anon put to a great deal of trouble to correct the alteration of the outward letter by tradition and sense written in their hearts And as for all other parts of Scriptue which are not coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine we can have no certainty either that the outward Letter is true nor if we could can we possibly arrive at any certain sense of them And that it is intolerably pernicious according to his Hypothesis is plain because * every silly and upstart Heresie fathers it self upon it and when men leave Tradition as he supposeth all Hereticks do the Scripture is the most dangerous engine that could have been invented being to such Persons only * waxen natured words not sensed nor having any certain Interpreter but fit to be play'd upon diversly by quirks of wit that is apt to blunder and confound but to clear little or nothing And indeed if his Hypothesis were true the Scriptures might well deserve all the contemptuous language which he useth against them and Mr. White 's comparison of them with Lilly's Almanack would not only be pardonable but proper and unless he added it out of prudence and for the Peoples sake whom he may think too superstitiously conceited of those Books he might have spared that cold excuse which he makes for using this similitude that it was agreeable rather to the impertinency of the Objection than the dignity of the Subject Certain it is if these men are true to their own Principles that notwithstanding the high reverence and esteem pretended to be born by them and their Church to the Scriptures they must heartily despise them and wish them out of the way and even look upon it as a great oversight of the Divine Providence to trouble his Church with a Book which if their Discourse be of any consequence can stand Catholicks in no stead at all and is so dangerous and mischievous a weapon in the hands of Hereticks SECT III. § 1. HAving thus taken a view of his opinion and considered how much he attributes to Oral Tradition and how little to the Scriptures before I assail this Hypothesis I shall lay down the Protestant Rule of Faith not that so much is necessary for the answering of his Book but that he may have no colour of objection that I proceed altogether in the destructive way and overthrow his Principle as he calls it without substituting another in its room The opinion then of the Protestants concerning the Rule of faith is this in general That those Books which we call the Holy Scriptures are the means whereby the Christian Doctrine hath been brought down to us And that he may now clearly understand this together with the grounds of it which
of harms-way than to venture the infallibility of plain oral Tradition for the Doctrines he maintains against a practical Tradition which they have at Rome of killing Hereticks Methinks Mr. S. might have spared his brags that he hath evinced from clear reason that it is far more impossible to make a man not to be than not to know what is rivetted into his soul by so oft repeated sensations as the Christian Faith is by Oral and Practical Tradition and that it exceeds all the power of Nature abstracting from the cases of madness and violent disease to blot knowledg thus fixt out of the soul of one single Believer insomuch that sooner may all mankind perish than the regulative vertue of Tradition miscarry nay sooner may the sinews of entire nature by overstraining crack and she lose all her activity and motion that is her self than one single part of that innumerable multitude which integrate the vast testification which we call Tradition can possibly be violated when after he hath told us that the City of Rome was blest with more vigorous causes to imprint Christ's Doctrine at first and recommend it to the next Age than were found any where else and consequently that the stream of Tradition in its source and first putting into motion was more particularly vigorous there than in any other See and that the chief Pastor of that See hath a particular Title to Infallibility built upon Tradition above any other Pastor whatsoever not to dilate on the particular assistances to that Bishop springing out of his divinely constituted Office when I say after all this quaint Reason and rumbling Rhetorick about the infallibility of Oral Tradition and the particular infallibility of the Bishop of Rome built on Tradition we cannot but remember that this great Oracle of Oral Tradition the Pope and this great Master of it Mr. White who is so peculiarly skill'd in the Rule of Faith have so manifestly declar'd themselves to differ in points of Faith For that the Pope and his Congregation general at Rome have condemn'd all his Books for this reason because they contain several Propositions manifestly heretical is a sign that these two great Wits do not very well hit it in matters of Faith and either that they do not both agree in the same Rule of Faith or that one of them does not rightly understand it or not follow it And now why may not that which Mr. S. unjustly says concerning the use of Scripture be upon this account justly apply'd to the business of Oral Tradition If we see two such eminent Wits among the Papists the Pope and Mr. White making use of the self-same and as they conceive the best advantages their Rule of Faith gives them and availing themselves the best they can by acquired skills yet differ about matters of Faith what certainty can we undertakingly promise to weaker heads that is to the generality of the Papists in whom the Governors of the Church do professedly cherish ignorance for the increasing of their devotion § 6. Fourthly We have sufficient assurance that the Books of Scripture are conveyed down to us without any material corruption or alteration And he that denies this must either reject the authority of all Books because we cannot be certain whether they be the same now that they were at first or else give some probable reason why these should be more liable to corruption than others But any man that considers things will easily find that it is much more improbable that these Books should have been either wilfully or involuntarily corrupted in any thing material to Faith or a good Life than any other Books in the World whether we consider the peculiar Providence of God engaged for the preservation of them or the peculiar circumstances of these Books If they were wrirten by men divinely inspired and are of use to Christians as is acknowledged at least in words on all hands nothing is more credible than that the same Divine Providence which took care for the publishing of them would likewise be concerned to preserve them entire And if we consider the peculiar circumstances of these Books we shall find it morally impossible that they should have been materially corrupted because being of universal and mighty concernment and at first diffused into many hands and soon after translated into most Languages and most passages in them cited in Books now extant and all these now agreeing in all matters of importance we have as great assurance as can be had concerning any thing of this nature that they have not suffered any material alteration and far greater than any man can have concerning the incorruption of their oral Tradition as I shall shew when I come to answer the thing which he calls Demonstration § 7. Fifthly That de facto the Scripture hath been acknowledged by all Christians in former Ages to be the means whereby the doctrine of Christ hath with greatest certainty been conveyed to them One good evidence of this is That the Primitive Adversaries of Christian Religion did always look upon the Scripture as the standard and measure of the Christian Doctrine and in all their writing against Christianity took that for granted to be the Christian Faith which was contained in those Books there having not as yet any Philosopher risen up who had demonstrated to the World that a Doctrine could not with sufficient certainty and clearness be conveyed by writing from one Age to another But how absurd had this method of confuting Christian Religion been if it had been then the publick profession of Christians that the Scriptures were not the Rule of their Faith How easie had it been for the Fathers who apologized for and defended Christian Religion to have told them they took a wrong measure of their Doctrine for it was not the principle of Christians that their Faith was conveyed to them by the Scriptures and therefore it was a fond undertaking to attaque their Religion that way but if they would effectually argue against it they ought to enquire what that Doctrine was which was orally delivered from father to son without which the Scriptures could signifie no more to them than an unknown Cipher without a Key being of themselves without the light of Oral Tradition only an heap of unintelligible words unsensed Cha racters and Ink variously figured in a Book and therefore it was a gross mistake in them to think they could understand the Christian Religion like their own Philosophy by reading of those Books or confute it by confuting them Thus the Fathers might have defended their Religion nay they ought in all reason to have taken this course and to have appealed from those dead senseless Books to the true Rule of Faith the living voice of the Church Essential But doth Mr. S. find any thing to this purpose in the Apologies of the Fathers If he hath discover'd any such matter he might do well to acquaint the World
afterwards when the posterity of Abraham was multiplied into a great Nation the wisdom of God did not think fit to entrust the Doctrine of Religion any longer to the fallible and uncertain way of Tradition but committed it to writing Now that God pitched upon this way after the world had sadly experienced the unsuccesfulness of the other seems to be a very good evidence that this was the better and more secure way it being the usual method of the Divine dispensations not to go backwards but to move towards perfection and to proceed from that which is less perfect to that which is more And the Apostles reasoning concerning the two Covenants is very applicable to these two methods of conveying the Doctrine of Religion if the first had been faultless then should no place have been sought for a second § 3. So likewise when Christ revealed his Doctrine to the world it was not in his life-time committed to writing because it was entertained but by a few who were his disciples and followers and who so long as he continued with them had a living Oracle to teach them After his death the Apostles who were to publish this Doctrine to the world were assisted by an infallible Spirit so as they were secured from error and mistake in the delivery of it But when this extraordinary assistance failed there was need of some other means to convey it to posterity that so it might be a fixt and standing Rule of Faith and Manners to the end of the world To this end the providence of God took care to have it committed to writing And that Mr. S may see this is not a conjecture of Protestants but the sense of former times I shall refer him to St. Chrysostom Homil. 1. in Matth. who tells us That Christ left nothing in writing to his Apostles but in stead thereof did promise to bestow upon them the grace of his holy Spirit saying John 14. He shall bring all things to your remembrance c. But because in progress of time there were many grievous miscarriages both in matter of Opinion and also of Life and Manners therefore it was requisite that the memory of this Doctrine should be preserved by writing So long then as the Apostles lived who were thus infallibly assisted the way of Oral Tradition was secure but no longer nor even then from the nature of the thing but from that extraordinary and supernatural assistance which accompanied the deliverers § 4. And therefore it is no good way of Argument against the way of Tradition by writing which he lays so much weight upon That the Apostles and their Successors went not with Books in their hands to preach and deliver Christ's Doctrine but words in their mouths and that primitive antiquity learned their faith by another method a long time before many of those Books were universally spread among the vulgar For what if there was no need of writing this Doctrine whilst those living Oracles the Apostles were present with the Church Doth it therefore follow that there was no need of it afterwards when the Apostles were dead and that extraordinary and supernatural assistance was ceased If the Preachers now adays could give us any such assurance and confirm all they preach by such frequent and publick and unquestionable miracles as the Apostles did then we need not examine the Doctrines they taught by any other Rule but ought to regulate our belief by what they delivered to us But seeing this is not the case that ought in all reason to be the Rule of our Faith which hath brought down to us the Doctrine of Christ with the greatest certainty And this I shall prove the Scriptures to have done § 5. So that in those circumstances I have mentioned We allow Oral Tradition to have been a sufficient way of conveying a Doctrine but now considering the great increase of mankind and the shortness of mans life in these latter ages of the world and the long tract of time from the Apostles age down to us and the innumerable accidents whereby in the space of 1500 years Oral Tradition might receive insensible alterations so as at last to become quite another thing from what it was at first by passing through many hands in which passage all the mistakes and corruptions which in the several Ages through which it was transmitted did happen either through Ignorance or Forgetfulness or out of interest and design are necessarily derived into the last So that the further it goes the more alteration it is liable to because as it passeth along more Errours and Corruptions are infused into it I say considering all this we deny that the Doctrine of Christian Religion could with any probable security and certainty have been conveyed down to us by the way of Oral Tradition And therefore do reasonably believe that God fore-seeing this did in his wisdom so order things that those persons who were assisted by an infallible spirit in the delivery of this Doctrine should before they left the world commit it to writing which was accordingly done And by this Instrument the Doctrine of Faith hath been conveyed down to us § 6. Secondly We allow that Oral Tradition is a considerable assurance to us that the Books of Scripture which we now have are the very Books which were written by the Apostles and Evangelists but withall we deny That Oral Tradition is therefore to be accounted the Rule of Faith The general Assurance that we have concerning Books written long ago that they are so ancient and were written by those whose names they bear is a constant and uncontroll'd Tradition of this transmitted from one Age to another partly Orally and partly by the Testimony of other Books Thus much is common to Scripture with other Books But then the Scriptures have this peculiar advantage above other Books that being of a greater and more universal concernment they have been more common and in every bodies hands more read and studied than any other Books in the World whatsoever and consequently they have a more universal and better grounded attestation Moreover they have not only been owned universally in all Ages by Christians except three or four Books of them which for some time were questioned by some Churches but have since been generally received but the greatest Enemies of our Religion the Jews and Heathens never questioned the Antiquity of them but have always taken it for granted that they were the very Books which the Apostles writ And this is as great an assurance as we can have concerning any ancient Book without a particular and immediate Revelation § 7. And this Concession doth not as M. S supposeth make Oral Tradition to be finally the Rule of Faith for the meaning of this question What is the Rule of Faith Is What is the next and immediate means whereby the knowledge of Christs Doctrine is conveyed to us So that although Oral Tradition be the means whereby we come to
but by so deep an inspection into the sense of Scripture as shall discover such secrets that Philosophy and human Industry could never have arrived to As if we could not be assured that any thing were written by men divinely inspired unless it were above the reach of human understanding and as if no man could know that this was our Saviours Doctrine Whatever ye would that men should do unto you that do ye likewise unto them because every one can understand it But if there were more mysteries in the Scriptures than there are I hope a man might be satisfied that they were written by men divinely inspired without a clear comprehension of all those mysteries The evidence of the inspiration of any person doth not depend upon the plaineness or sublimity of the things revealed to him but upon the goodness of the arguments which tend to perswade us that the person is so inspired And the Argument that is most fit to satisfy us of that is if he work miracles Now I would gladly know why a learned man cannot be assured of a miracle that is a plain sensible matter of Fact done long ago but by so deep an inspection into the sense of Scripture as shall discover such secrets that Philosophy and human Industry could never have arrived to § 4. Thirdly Because all the seeming contradictions of Scripture must be solved before we can out of the bare letter conclude the Scripture to be of God's enditing to solve which literally plainly and satisfactorily he tells us the memory of so many particulars which made them clearer to those of the Age in which they were written and the matter known must needs be so worn out by tract of time that it is one of the most difficult tasks in the World As if we could not believe a Book to be of God's enditing because there seem now to be some contradictions in it which we have reason to believe could easily have been solved by those who lived in the Age in which it was written Or as if oral Tradition could help a man to solve these contradictions when the memory of particulars necessary for the clear solution of them is as himself confesses worn out by tract of time If Mr. S. can in order to the solution of the seeming contradictions of Scripture demonstrate that oral Tradition hath to this day preserv'd the memory of those particulars necessary for that purpose the memory of which must needs be long since worn out by tract of time then I will readily yield that his Rule of Faith hath in this particular the advantage of ours But if he cannot do this why does he make that an Argument against our Rule which is as strong against his own This is just like Capt. Everard's Friend's way of arguing against the Protestants That they cannot rely upon Scripture because it is full of plain contradictions impossible to be reconciled and therefore they ought in all reason to submit to the infallibility of the Church And for an instance of such a contradiction he pitched upon the three fourteen Generations mentioned in the first of St. Matthew because the third Series of Generations if they be counted will be found to be but thirteen Not to mention now how this difficulty hath been sufficiently satisfied both by Protestant and Popish Commentators without any recourse to oral Tradition that which I take notice of is the unreasonableness of making this an Exception against the Protestants when it comes with every whit as much force upon themselves Suppose this Contradiction not capable of any solution by Protestants as he affirms and I should submit to the infallibility of the Church can he assure me that infallibility can make thirteen fourteen If it cannot how am I nearer satisfaction in this point by acknowledging the infallibility of the Church The case is the very same as to Mr S's Exception if I owned oral Tradition I should be never the nearer solving the seeming contradictions of Scripture and consequently I could not in Reason conclude it to be of God's enditing So that in truth these Exceptions if they were true would not strike at Protestancy but at Christian Religion which is the general unhappiness of most of the Popish Arguments than which there is no greater evidence that the Church of Rome is not the true Mother because she had rather Christianity should be destroyed than it should appear that any other Church hath a claim to it It was a work very proper for the Heretick Marcion to assault Religion this way who as Tertullian tells us writ a whole Book which he call'd Antitheses wherein he reckoned up all the Contradictions as he thought between the Old and New Testament But methinks it is very improper for the Papists who pretend to be the only true Christians in the World to strain their wits to discover as many contradictions as they can in the Scripture and to prove that there is no way of reconciling them The natural consequence of which is the exposing of this sacred Instrument of our Religion and even Christianity it self to the scorn of Atheists Therefore to be very plain with Mr. S. and Captain Everard I am heartily sorry to see that one of the chief fruits of their Conversion is to abuse the Bible § 5. Secondly He says that Protestants cannot know how many the Books of Scripture ought to be and which of the many controverted ones may be securely put in that Catalogue which not This he proves by saying 't is most palpable that few or at least the rude vulgar can never be assured of it And if this be a good Argument this again is a good Answer to say it is not most palpable But I shall deal more liberally and tell him that we know that just so many ought to be received as uncontroverted Books concerning which it cannot be shewn there was ever any Controversy and so many as controverted concerning which it appears that Question hath been made And if those which have been controverted have been since received by those Churches which once doubted of them there is now no further doubt concerning them because the Controversy about them is at an end And now I would fain know what greater certainty oral Tradition can give us of the true Catalogue of the Books of Scripture For it must either acknowledg some Books have been controverted or not if not why doth he make a supposition of controverted Books If oral Tradition acknowledg some to have been controverted then it cannot assure us that they have not been controverted nor consequently that they ought to be received as never having been controverted but only as such concerning which those Churches who did once raise a Controversy about them have been since satisfied that they are Canonical The Traditionary Church now receives the Epistle to the Hebrews as Canonical I ask Do they receive it as ever delivered for such That they must
if they receive it from oral Tradition which conveys things to them under this notion as ever delivered and yet St. Hierom speaking not as a Speculator but a Testifier saith expresly of it That the custom of the Latin Church doth not receive it among the Canonical Scriptures What saith Mr. S. to this It is clear from this Testimony that the Roman Church in St. Hierom's time did not acknowledg this Epistle for Canonical and 't is as plain that the present Roman Church doth receive it for Canonical Where is then the infallibility of oral Tradition How does the living voice of the present Church assure us that what Books are now received by her were ever received by her And if it cannot do this but the matter must come to be tried by the best Records of former Ages which the Protestants are willing to have their Catalogue tried by then it seems the Protestants have a better way to know what Books are Canonical than is the infallible way of oral Tradition and so long as 't is better no matter though it be not called Infallible § 6. Thirdly He says the Protestants cannot know that the very Original or a perfectly true copy of these Books hath been preserved It is not necessary that they should know either of these it is sufficient that they know that those copies which rhey have are not materially corrupted in any matter of Faith or Practice and that they have sufficient assurance of this I have already shewn And how doth he prove the contrary By his usual Argument with saying it is manifestly impossible But how do the Church of Rome know that they have perfectly true copies of the Scriptures in the Original Languages They do not pretend to know this the learned men of that Church acknowledg the various Readings as well as we and do not pretend to know otherwise than by probable conjecture as we also may do which of those Readings is the true one And why should it be more necessary for us to know this than for them If they think it reasonable to content themselves with knowing that no material corruptions have crept into those Books so may we And that there have not we know by better Arguments than oral Tradition even by the assurance we have of God's vigilant providence and from a moral impossibility in the thing that a Book so universally dispersed and translated into so many Languages and constantly read in the Assemblies of Christians should have been materially corrupted so as that all those copies and translations should have agreed in those corruptions And this reason St. Austin gives of the preservation of the Scriptures entire rather than any other Book If Mr. S. likes it not he may call St. Austin to account for it § 7. Fourthly He says the Protestants at least the rudest vulgar can have no assurance that those Books are rightly translated because they cannot be assured either of the ability or integrity of Translators Fifthly Nor can they says he be assured that the Transcribers and Printers and Correctors of the Press have carefully and faithfully done their part in Transcribing and Printing the several Copies and Translations of Scripture aright Because they only can have evidence of the right letter of Scripture who stood at their elbows attentively watching they should not err in making it perfectly like a former Copy and even then why might they not mistrust their own eyes and aptness to oversee I put these two Exceptions together because the same Answer will serve them both The grounds of these Exceptions if they have any are these That no man is to be trusted either for his skill or honesty And that it is dangerous for men to trust their own eyes Unless both these be true these Exceptions are of no force For if we can be assured that other men have sufficient skill in any thing which we our selves do not sufficiently understand we may be assured that those who translated the Bible had skill in the Original Languages because very credible persons tell us so and we have no reason to doubt their testimony in this particular more than in any other matter So that if we can have sufficient assurance of mens integrity in any thing we have no reason to doubt of the skill of Translators or Transcribers or Printers And if we can have no assurance of mens integrity in any thing then no man can be assured that there was such a man as Henry the Eighth and yet I hope the Church of Rome makes no doubt of it Nor can any man be assured there is such a City as Rome who hath not seen it nay if he have why may he not mistrust his own eyes And which is the saddest inconvenience of all if no body be to be trusted nor mens own eyes and for the same reason sure not their ears what becomes of the Infallibility of oral and practical Tradition Which necessarily supposeth a competent understanding a faithful memory an honest mind in the generality of those who delivered Christs Doctrine down to us And by what means soever a man can be assured of these by the same he may much more easily be assured of the ability and integrity of Translators Transcribers and Printers But above all it supposeth that mens ears and eyes cannot deceive them in those things which they are taught and see practised Is it not very pretty to see what pitiful shifts men that serve an Hypothesis are put to When to maintain Infallibility they are forced to run to the extremities of Scepticism and to defend the certainty of oral Tradition which depends upon the certainty of mens senses and an assurance of the ability and integrity of those who were dead 1500 years before we were born are glad to take refuge in Principles quite contrary such as these That we can have no assurance but that whole Professions of men might hap to be Knaves that we can have no sufficient evidence that any man made his Copy perfectly like the former unless we stood at his elbow attentively watching him Nay and if we did so we have still reason to distrust our senses In short all human Faith supposeth honesty among men and that for matters of Fact and plain objects of Sense the general and uncontrolled testimony of mankind is to be credited and for matters of peculiar skill and knowledg that the generality of those who are accounted skilful in that kind are to be relied upon For as Aristotle well observes there is no greater sign of an undisciplin'd wit or to use one of Mr. S's fine phrases of a man not acquainted with the paths of Science than to expect greater evidence for things than they are capable of Every man hath reason to be assured of a thing which is capable of sufficient evidence when he hath as much evidence for it as the nature of that thing will bear and
as the capacity he is in will permit him to have And as Mr. White says well Satisfaction is to be given to every one according to his capacity it is sufficient for a Child to believe his Parents for a Clown to believe his Preacher And this is universally true in all cases where we have not better or equal evidence to the contrary But such is the unhappiness of the Popish Doctrines that if people were permitted the free use of the Scripture they would easily discern them to have no probable foundation in it and some of them to be plainly contrary to it so that it cannot be safe for their Preachers to tell the people that the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith lest they should find cause not to believe them when they teach Doctrines so plainly contrary to that Rule § 8. Lastly He says the Protestants cannot be certain of the true sense of Scripture Does he mean of plain Texts or obscure ones Of the true sense of plain Texts I hope every one may be certain and for obscure ones it is not necessary every one should But it may be there are no plain Texts in the Scriptures then the reason of it must be till Mr. S. can shew a better either because it is impossible for any one to write plainly or because God cannot write so plainly as men or because we have good reason to think that he would not write things necessary for every one to believe so as men might clearly understand him But he tells us The numerous Comments upon Scripture are an evidence that no man can be certain of the true sense of it I hope not for if those numerous Commentators do generally agree in the sense of plain Texts as 't is certain they do then this Argument signifies nothing as to such Texts And as for those which are obscure let Commentators differ about them as much as they please so long as all necessary Points of Faith and matters of Practice are delivered in plain Texts He adds There are infinite disputes about the sense of Scripture even in most concerning Points as in that of Christ's Divinity But are not Commentators both Protestant and Popish generally agreed about the sense of Scripture in that Point And what if some out of prejudice do mistake or out of perverseness do wrest the plainest Texts of Scripture for the Divinity of Christ to another sense Is this any argument that those Texts are not sufficiently plain Can any thing be spoken or written in words so clear from ambiguity which a perverse or prejudiced mind shall not be able to vex and force to another meaning God did not write the Scriptures for the froward and the captious but for those who will read them with a free and unprejudiced mind and are willing to come to the knowledg of the Truth If Mr. S. had been conversant in the writings of the Fathers he could not but have taken notice with what confidence they attempt to prove the Divinity of Christ out of Scripture as if that did afford convincing arguments for this purpose St. Chrysostom professes to demonstrate out of Scripture That the Son is of the same substance with the Father and relies upon Scripture alone for this without mentioning any other kind of Argument So that it seems St. Chrysostom was not acquainted with the insufficiency of Scripture for the conviction of Hereticks in this Point and that he was either ignorant of the infallible way of Demonstrating this point from Oral Tradition or had no great opinion of it The same Father elsewhere arguing against Hereticks about the Divinity of Christ says That they pervert the Scriptures to strengthen their Heresie from thence But then he does not with Mr. S. blame the Scripture and say that this Doctrine is not there deliver'd with sufficient clearness but contrarywise he says That the Scripture is clear enough but the corrupt minds of Hereticks will not see what is there contain'd Had St. Chrysostom been a true Son of the Traditionary Church he would have lain hold of this occasion to vilifie the Scriptures and to shew the necessity of regulating our faith not by such uncertain Records but by the infallible Reports of Oral Tradition § 9. But because Mr. S. lays great weight in several parts of his Book upon this Exception against Scripture viz. That Protestants cannot be certain of the true sense of it Therefore I shall not content my self only to have shewn that we may be sufficiently certain of the sense of Scripture so far as to understand all necessary matters of Faith and Practice and that more than this is not necessary but shall likewise return this Exception upon him by enquiring into these two things 1. How the Traditionary Church can be more certain of the true sense of Scripture than the Protestants 2. How they can be more certain of the true sense of Tradition than Protestants of the true sense of Scripture 1. How the Traditionary Church can be more certain of the true sense of Scripture than Protestants They pretend to have an Oral Tradition of the true sense of it delivered down from Father to Son But this only reacheth to those Texts which are coincident with the main body of Christian Doctrine as for all other parts of Scripture they are as useless to Papists as they suppose they are to us because wanting the help of Oral Tradition they cannot be certain of one tittle of them And as for those Texts the sense whereof is conveyed down by Oral Tradition this sense is I hope delivered in some words or other And have all Preachers and Fathers and Mothers and Nurses the faculty of delivering this sense in words so plain as cannot possibly be mistaken or wrested to another sense I am sorry that when every one hath this faculty of speaking their thoughts plainly the Holy Ghost should be represented as not able to convey his mind to men in intelligible words And does not his own Objection rebound upon himself If the Church have a certain sense of Scripture orally delivered whence are the numerous Comments of the Fathers upon it and of later Writers in their Church and the infinite Disputes about the sense of it in the most concerning Points viz. The efficacy of Gods grace the Supremacy of St. Peter the infallibility of a Pope and Council by immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost What a stir is made about the sense of Dabo tibi Claves Tu es Petrus super hanc Petram c. Pasce oves Do not they differ about the meaning of these Texts among themselves as much as they do from the Fathers and from the Protestants Some understanding them of St Peters Supremacy only others of his infallibility others of his infallibility only in and with a general Council which yet others do not allow to Pope or Council from any immediate assistance but only from the
not reasonable but peevish in exacting infallible security and insisting upon every capricious Objection such as is Mr. S's Might it not be otherwise Now as to this degree of Assurance or as he calls it Infallibility I cannot but grant what he says of it to be most true viz. That in a severe acception of the word it is not rigorously infallible that is as he explains it it is not absolutely impossible nor does it imply a flat contradiction that the thing whereof we are so assured may be otherwise But then I utterly deny that according to any true acception of this word such a degree of Assurance as he speaks of can be called Infallibility and withall I affirm That none of those several degrees of Infallibility which he mentions excepting that only which imports an absolute impossibility can with any tolerable propriety of speech or regard to the true meaning and use of the word have the name of Infallibility given to them For Infallibility can signifie nothing else but an utter impossibility that one should be deceived in that matter as to which he is supposed to be infallible and to say such a thing is impossible is to say that the existence of it implies a flat contradiction So that whosoever asserts degrees of Infallibility is obliged to shew that there are degrees of absolute impossibilities and of perfect contradictions and he had need of a very sharp and piercing wit that is to find out degrees where there neither are nor can be any Indeed in respect of the objects of knowledge it is easie to conceive how Infallibility may be extended to more objects or fewer but in respect of the degree of assurance of which Mr. Cressy speaks it is altogether unimaginable how any one can be more or less out of all possibility of being deceived in those things wherein he is supposed to be infallible for no one can be more removed from the possibility of being deceived than he that is out of all possibility of being deceived and whosoever is less than this is not infallible because he only is so who is out of all possibility of being deceived in those matters wherein he is supposed to be infallible So that Mr. Cressy's lower degrees of Infallibility are no degrees of that assurance which may properly be called infallible for that can have no degrees but of that assurance which is less than infallible And he needed not have raised all this dust about the degrees of Infallibility had it not been that by the means of such a cloud he might make the more convenient escape out of that strait he was in between the clamours of his own Church and the advantage which his Adversaries made of his free and open discourse against Infallibility For any one that carefully reads his Book will find that he understands nothing by the Infallibility of the Church but an Authority of obliging all Christians to submit to her Decisions which is no more but what every Supreme Civil Judg hath in Civil matters viz. a power to determine those Controversies that lie before him as well as he can or will and when that is done every one is bound to submit to such determinations but yet for all this no man ever dream't a Supreme Civil Judg to be infallible more than another man I do not now dispute the extent of the Churches Authority but if she have no other Infallibility but what a full Authority of decision does suppose I am sure she hath none at all Before I leave Mr. Cressy I cannot but take notice how unfortunate and disingenuous he is in explaining the meaning of these words of his own viz. Against this word of Infallibility Mr. Chillingworth 's Book especially combats and this with too too great success which in his Appendix he interprets thus Success I mean not against the Church but against his own Soul and the Souls of his Fellow-English Protestants c. As if one that had wished well to Caesar should have said That Pompey had fought against him with too too great success and being afterwards challenged by Caesar's Party as having said that Pompey had Conquered Caesar he should explain himself thus Success I mean not against Caesar but against his own life and the lives of his followers Can any thing be finer than for a man to say that by Pompey's success in fighting against Caesar he means that Caesar had beaten Pompey which is no more than if one should take the liberty to interpret white by black § 6. Lastly Mr. White doth most expresly contradict this Principle of Mr. S's in these following passages In his Preface to Mr. Rushworth he says That such a certainty as makes the cause always work the same effect though it take not away the absolute possibility of working otherwise ought absolutely to be reckoned in the degree of true certainty and that those Authors are mistaken who undervalue it So that it seems Mr. S. is mistaken in affirming that a man cannot be certain of any thing so long as there is any possibility that it may be otherwise In his Answer to my Lord Falkland he says That in Moral matters and such as are subject to humane action we must expect such assurance as humane actions bear If for the government of your spiritual life you have as much as for the management of your natural and civil life what can you expect more Two or three witnesses of men beyond exception will cast a man out of not only his lands but life and all He that among Merchants will not adventure where there is a Hundred to one of gaining will be accounted a silly Factor And among Souldiers he that will fear danger where but one of a Hundred is slain shall not escape the stain of Cowardize What then shall we expect in Religion but to see a main advantage on the one side which we may rest our selves on and for the rest remember we are men subject to chance and mutability and thank God he hath given us that assurance in a supernatural way which we are contented withall in our civil ventures and possessions which nevertheless God knoweth we often love better and would hazard less than the unknown good of the life to come Again If God Almighty hath in all sorts and manners provided his Church that she may enlighten every man in his way that goeth the way of a man then let every man consider which is the sit way for himself and what in other matters of that way he accounteth evidence And if there be no interest in his Soul to make him loth to believe what in another matter of the like nature he doth not stick at or heavy to practise what he sees clearly enough I fear not his choice Once more directing a man in his search after rational satisfaction in matters of Religion he hath this passage Besides this he must have this care that he seek what
to be given to History St. Hierom tells us That Liberius Bishop of Rome for all his particular Title to Infallibility built upon Tradition as Mr. S. speaks Coroll 28. turned Arian And that Arianism was establish't by the Synod of Ariminum which was a Council more general than that of Trent And that almost all the Churches in the whole World under the names of Peace and of the Emperour were polluted by Communion with the Arians Again That under the Emperour Constantius Eusebius and Hippatius being Consuls Infidelity was subscribed under the names of Vnity and Faith And that the whole World groaned and wondered to see it self turned Arian And he uses this as an argument to the Luciferians to receive into the Church those who had been defiled with the Heresie of Arius because the number of those who had kept themselves Orthodox was so exceeding small For says he the Synod of Nice which consisted of above Three hundred Bishops received Eight Arian Bishops whom they might have cast out without any great loss to the Church I wonder then how some and those the followers of the Nicene Faith can think that three Confessors viz. Athanasius Hilarius Eusebius ought not to do that in case of necessity for the good and safety of the whole World which so many and such excellent Persons did voluntarily It seems Arianism had prevailed very far when St. Hierom could not name above three eminent Persons in the Church who had preserved themselves untainted with it Again Arius in Alexandria was at first but one spark but because it was not presently extinguish't it broke out into a flame which devoured the whole World Gregory Nazianzen likewise tells us to the same purpose That the Arian Heresie seized upon the greatest part of the Church And to shew that he knew nothing of Mr. S's Demonstration of the indefectibility of the generality of Christians he asks Where are those that define the Church by multitude and despise the little Flock c And this Heresie was of a long continuance for from its first rise which happened in the 20 th year of Constantine it continued as Joh. Abbas hath calculated it 266 years And the Pelagian Heresie if we may believe Bradwardine one of the great Champions of the Church against it did in a manner prevail as much as Arianism as the said Author complains in his Preface to his Book That almost the whole World was run after Pelagius into Error Will Mr. S. now say that in the height of these Heresies the generality of Christians did firmly adhere to Tradition If he say they did let him answer the express Testimonies produced to the contrary But if they did not then his Demonstration also fails as to the generality of Christians And if the greater part of Christians may fall off from Tradition what Demonstration can make it impossible for the lesser to do so Who will say it is in Reason impossible that a Thousand persons should relinquish Tradition though Nine hundred of them have already done it and though the remainder be no otherwise secured from doing so than those were who have actually relinquish't it Now is not this a clear evidence that this which he calls a Demonstration a Priori is no such thing Because every Demonstration a Priori must be from causes which are necessary whereas his Demonstration is from voluntary causes So that unless he can prove that voluntary causes are necessary he shall never demonstrate that it is impossible for the generality of any company of men to err who have every one of them free-will and are every one of them liable to passion and mâ—stake § 5. From all this it appears that his whole Discourse about the Original and Progress of Heresie and the multitudes of Hereticks in several Ages is as clear a confutation of his own Demonstration as can be desired The only thing that he offers in that Discourse to prevent this Objection which he foresaw it liable to is this It is not says he to be expected but that some contingencies should have place where an whole Species in a manner is to be wrought upon it sufficeth that the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire are as efficacious as those which are laid for the preservation of Mankind the vertue of Faith not being to continue longer than Mankind its only subject does and they will easily appear as efficacious as the other if we consider the strength of those causes before explicated and reflect that they are effectively powerful to make multitudes daily debar themselves of those pleasures which are the causes of Mankinds propagation and if we look into History for experience of what hath passed in the World since the propagating of Christianity we shall find more particulars failing in propagating their kind than their Faith To which I answer First That it may reasonably be expected there should be no contingencies in any particulars where causes of actual will are supposed to be put in all Because as he says truly a cause put actually causing cannot but produce its effect Suppose then constant causes laid in all Mankind of an actual will to speak Truth to the best of their knowledg were it not reasonable to expect that there would be no such contingency to the Worlds end as that any man should tell a lye Nay it were madness for any man to think any such contingency should be supposing causes actually causing men always to speak Truth Secondly It is far from Truth that the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire are as efficacious as those which are laid for the propagation of Mankind And whereas he would prove the strength of these causes which are laid to preserve Faith because they are effectively powerful to make multitudes daily debar themselves of those pleasurâ—s which are the causes of Mankinds propagation I hope no body that hath read the innumerable complaints which occur in their own Historians and others of the best and most credible of their own Writers of more than one Age concerning the general viciousness and debauchery of their Priests and Monks will he overforward to believe that all those who debar themselves of lawful Marriage do abstain from those unlawful pleasures § 6. But nothing can be more impudent than what he adds That if we look into Histories for experience of what hath past in the World since the first planting of Christianity we shall find far more particulars failing in propagating their kind than their Faith Do any Histories confirm it to have been the experience of the World that the far greatest part of the World did in any Age give over propagating their kind But Histories do confirm that the far greatest part of the Christian World did fall off to Arianism and Pelagianism and consequently as he supposeth did desert and renounce Tradition Did ever whole Nations and vast Territories of the World
live better than the People For the Bishops were grown negligent of the Duty of their place c. In a word men ran themselves headlong into all Vice and all Flesh had corrupted its way And farther to shew the great neglect of Priests and Bishops in the work of Teaching and Instruction which is so necessary to the preserving of Tradition inviolable I will add the Testimony of one who lived in those Times who tells us That in those days the Priests and Bishops who ought to have been the Pillars of the Church were so negligent that they did not mind the Divine Scripture nor take any care to teach and instruct Scholars that might succeed them as we read holy Men had used to do who left many Scholars perfectly instructed to be their Successors If they had only neglected the Scriptures all might have been well enough but it seems they took no care to instruct people in the way of Oral Tradition nor to furnish the Church with a new Generation of able Teachers who might deliver down from hand to hand the sense and faith of Fore-fathers This last Testimony the late Learned Lord Primate of Ierland Bishop Vsher in his Book De Christian. Eccles. Success c. where several of the Testimonies I have produced with many more to the same purpose may be seen cites out of a M. S. in Bennet Colledg Library in Cambridg concerning the authority of which M. S. there need be no dispute between Mr. S. and me because the whole force and effect of this Testimony is sufficiently contained in those Citations which I have brought out of publick and unquestionable Books § 4. All these Testimonies which I have produced are in general and for the substance of them confirmed by Two of the greatest Props of the Romish Church Bellarmine and Baronius Bellarmine says of this Tenth Age That there was never any either more unlearned or more unhappy Baronius speaks more particularly What was then the face of the Roman Church How deformed When Whores no less powerful than vile bore the chief sway at Rome and at their pleasure changed Sees appointed Bishops and which it is horrible to mention did thrust into St. Peters See their own Gallants false-Popes who would not have been mentioned in the Catalogue of the Roman Popes but only for the more distinct Recording of so long a Succession of Times And a little after Christ was then it seems in a very deep sleep And which was worse when the Lord was thus asleep there were no Disciples to awaken him being themselves all fast asleep What kind of Cardinal Presbyters and Deacons can we think were chosen by these Monsters when nothing is so natural as for every one to propagate his own likeness It is very much that these lewd Women and their Favourite-Popes Cardinals and Bishops who then swayed the Church should when they were so careless of their own Souls be so tender of the salvation of Posterity and when they administred all other affairs of the Church so extravagantly should be so careful of the main chance as to transmit the Christian Doctrine entire and uncorrupted to succeeding Ages Yet Mr. S. hath demonstrated this a Posteriori which seems so very strange to a man that considers things a Priori § 5. But it may be this dismal state of the Roman Church lasted but a little while and she did in the same Age before Tradition could be interrupted recover her self out of this degenerate condition I will therefore enquire a little into the state of succeeding Times And I find in the Thirteenth Century St. Bernard complaining That the degeneracy of the Priests was in his days greater than ever We cannot says he now say as is the People so is the Priest for the People are not so bad as their Priests In the Fifteenth Century Nic. de Clemangiis who lived in that Time wrote a Book upon this argument Of the corrupt state of the Church by which we may make some judgment whether in that Age it was as Mr. S. says impossible but that the Christian Doctrine should be entirely preserved and faithfully and diligently taught He says there was an universal degeneracy in the Church from the very Head of it to its lowest Members In the same Chapter he complains Who is there that preaches the Gospel to the People Who shews them the way to Salvation either by Word or Action It seems there was a great failure both of Oral and Practical Tradition Again speaking of the Pope's taking to himself the Collation of all vacant Bishopricks and Dignities he says one might think the Pope did this that the Church might be provided of worthier Governors both in respect of their Learning and their lives did not the thing it self declare the contrary and that ignorant and useless Persons provided they had money were by Simony advanced to the highest degrees in the Church And speaking what a vast number of Candidates there was usually at Rome from all Parts waiting for Benefices and Dignities he tells us That many of these did not come from their Studies or from Schools of Learning to govern Parishes but from the Plow and from the meanest Professions and that they understood Latin and Arabick much at the same rate and many of them could not read at all But it may be says he their manners were such as might be some excuse for their Ignorance No though their Learning was but little their Vertue was less for being brought up in Idleness they followed nothing but Debauchery and Sports c. Hence it comes to pass that in all places there are so many wicked and wretched and ignorant Priests Hence it is that Priests are so contemned by the common People Formerly the Priesthood was highly honoured by the People and nothing was more venerable than that Order of men but now nothing is more vile and despicable I make no doubt but there are now more Thieves and Robbers than true Pastors in the Church Why should any man now flatter himself with hopes of Preferment because of his Vertue or Learning Men do not now as formerly rise in the Church by such Arts Which of those that are now adays advanced to the Pontifical Dignity hath so much as perfunctorily read or heard or learn't the Scriptures yea or ever touched any more than the cover of the Bible Again speaking of the prodigious Covetousness of the Governors of the Church and the gross neglect of their Flocks They would says he much more contentedly bear the loss of ten thousand Souls than of ten or twelve Shillings But why do I say more contentedly When without the least trouble or disturbance to themselves they can bear the loss of Souls a thing so far from their care that it never entred into their thoughts Had the Hereticks of those days but had Wit enough and a little Money they might it seems for a
is the very way of the Calvinists and of the absurdest Sects Nay Mr. White says farther That he will be content to suffer all the punishment that is due to Calumniators if the Roman Divines he there speaks of do not hold the same Rule of Faith with the Calvinists and all the absurdest Sects So that it seems that the Calvinists c. do not in their Rule of Faith differ from the Papists but only from Mr. White Mr. S. c. Now the Divines he there speaks of are the Censors of Doctrines at Rome according to whose advice his infallible Holiness and the Cardinals of the Inquisition do usuall proceed in censuring of Doctrines Concerning these Divines he goes on to expostulate in this manner Shall we endure these men to sit as Censors and Judges of Faith who agree with Hereticks in the very first Principle which distinguishes Catholicks from Hereticks Again These are thy gods O Rome upon these thou dependest whil'st prating Ignorance triumphs in the Roman Colledg And he says the same likewise of the generality of their School-Divines whom he calls Scepticks because they do not own his Demonstrative way Insomuch that he tells us That few sound parts are left uninfected with this Plague of Scepticism that this is an universal Gangrene that there are but few that go the way of Demonstration and these are either wearied out or else live retiredly or despair of any remedy of these things And indeed all along that Book he bemoans himself and his Traditionary Brethren as a desolate and forlorn Party who have Truth on their side but want company and encouragement So he tells us That the true scientifical Divines dare not profess their knowledg lest they should be exposed by the Sophisters of their Church to the derision and scorn either of their Judges or of the People § 4. So that upon examination of the whole matter it appears that Mr. S's Demonstration proceeds upon a false Supposition That it is the perswasion of their present Church that Tradition is the sole Rule of Faith For there is no such matter unless Mr. S. mean by their Church a few private persons who are look'd upon by those who have the chief power in their Church as Heretical as we may reasonably conjecture by the proceedings at Rome against Mr. White many of whose Books are there condemned as containing things manifestly Heretical erroneous in the Faith rash scandalous seditious and false respectively c. And all this done notwithstanding that the chief subject of those Books is the explication and defence of this most Catholick Principle That Oral Tradition is the only Rule of Faith To sum up then the whole business If nothing be to be owned for Christian Doctrine as the Traditionists say but what is the general perswasion of those who are acknowledged to be in the communion of the Roman Catholick Church then much less can this Principle That Oral Tradition is the sole Rule of Faith which is pretended to be the foundation of the whole Christian Doctrine be received as descended from Christ and his Apostles since it is so far from being the general perswasion of that Church at the present that it has been and still is generally disowned But Mr. White has a salvo for this For although he grant That very many of their School-men maintain that Tradition is necessary only for some Points not clearly expressed in Scripture whence he says it seems to follow that they build not the whole Body of their Faith upon Tradition yet he tells us there is a vast difference betwixt relying on Tradition and saying or thinking we d◠so Suppose there be yet I hope that mens saying that they do not rely on Tradition as their only Rule is a better evidence that they do not than any mans surmise to the contrary is that they do though they think and say they do not which is in effect to say that they do though we have as much assurance as we can have that they do not Besides how is this Rule self-evident to all even to the rude Vulgar as to its ruling power as Mr. S. affirms it is when the greatest part even of the Learned among them think and say that it is not the only Rule But Mr. White endeavours to illustrate this dark point by a similitude which is to this sense As the Scepticks who deny this Principle That Contradictions cannot be true at once yet in their lives and civil actions proceed as if they owned it So the Schoolmen though they deny Tradition to be the only Rule of their Faith yet by resolving their Faith into the Church which owns this Principle they do also in practice own it though they say they do not So that the generality of learned Papists are just such Catholicks as the Scepticks are Dogmatists that is a company of absurd people that confute their Principles by their practice According to this reasoning I perceive the Protestants will prove as good Catholicks as any for they do only think and say that Tradition is not the Rule of Faith but that they practically rely upon it Mr. S. hath past his word for them For he assures us and we may rely upon a man that writes nothing but Demonstration that if we look narrowly into the bottom of our hearts we shall discover the natural method of Tradition to have unawares setled our Judgments concerning Faith however when our other Concerns awake design in us we protest against it and seem perhaps to our unreflecting selves to embrace and hold to the meer guidance of the Letter of Scripture So that in reality we are as good Catholicks and as true holders to Tradition as any Papist of them all at the bottom of our thoughts and in our setled judgments however we have taken up an humour to protest against it and may seem perhaps to our unreflecting selves to be Protestants § 5. Thus much may suffice to have spoken to his two great Arguments or as he good man unfortunately calls them Demonstrations which yet to say truth are not properly his but the Authors of Rushworth's Dialogues the main foundation of which Book is the substance of these Demonstrations Only before I take leave of them I cannot but reflect upon a passage of Mr. S s wherein he tells his Readers that they are not obliged to bend their brains to study his Book with that severity as they would do an Euclid meaning perhaps one of Mr. White 's Euclids for it does not appear by his way of Demonstration that ever he dealt with any other As for the true Euclid I suppose any one that hath tasted his Writings will at the reading of Mr. S's unbend his brains without bidding and smile to see himself so demurely discharged from a study so absurd and ridiculous SECT XI § 1. I Should now take into consideration his Ninth
sayes Neither ought I now to alledg the Nicene Council nor thou that of Arminium for neither am I bound to the Authority of the one nor thou of the other Let us both contest with the Authorities of Scripture which are Wtinesses common to us both And also against the Donatists in these words Let them if they can demonstrate their Church not by the Talk and Rumors or oral Tradition of the Africans not by the Councils of their own Bishops not by the Books of their Disputers not by deceitful Miracles c but by the prescript of the Law Prophets c. i. e. by all the Canonical Authorities of the Holy Books Hierom saith Of those things which without the Authorities and Testimonies of the Scripture men invent of their own heads as from Apostolical Tradition they are smitten with the Sword of God Theophilus Alexandr whom Hierom hath Translated calls Scripture more than once the Rule and the Testimonies of it the firm foundations of Doctrine And again saith It comes from a Demonical spirit that men follow the Sophisms of humane minds and think any thing Divine that wants the Authority of Scripture Theodoret charges all Heresies upon the not following of Scripture which he calls the inflexible Rule of Truth Again We have have learned the Rule of Opinions from the Divine Scripture After the Fathers I shall produce the Testimonies of two Eminent Persons of latter Times Gerson and Lyra. Gerson in his Book of the Tryal of Doctrines hath this remarkable passage In the Tryal of Doctrines that which is first and principally to be considered is Whether a Doctrine be conformable to the H. Scripture c. The reason of this is because the Scripture is deliver'd to us as a SVFFICIENT and INFALLIBLE RVLE for the Goverment of the whole Ecclesiastical Body and its Members to the end of the world So that it is such an Art such a Rule or Exemplar that any other Doctrine which is not conformable to it is to be renounc'd as Heretical or to be accounted suspicious or not at all appertaining to Religion Again It is evident how pernicious the rejection of the H. Scripture is and how certain a preparatory for the reception of Antichrist Once more What mischief what danger what confusion hath happen'd thorough contempt of the H. Scripture which sure is sufficient for the Government of the Church else Christ must have been an imperfect Law-giver let us ask Experience c. Lyra also writes thus As in Philosophy truth is discovered by reducing things to their first and self-evident Principles so in the Writings deliver'd by the H. Doctors Truth is discover'd as to matters of Faith by reducing them to the Canonical Scriptures Sir You know how easy it were to swell up a large Volume with Testimonies to this purpose especially if I should take the course that Mr. Wh. does to hale in quotations though never so impertinent or use the wretched importunity which Mr. S. does to perswade them to be pertinent But these Testimonies which I have nakedly set down leaving them to speak for themselves are enough to satisfie an unpassionate Reader such an one as dares trust himself with the use of his own eyes and reason As for that sort of men which chuses to follow noise rather than light we must be content to leave them to the blind conduct of those Guides who having no better means to keep their Followers to them go halloing in the dark and fill their ears with the insignificant sounds of Infallibility Indefectibility Self-evidence and Demonstration Concerning the Appendix wherein you are particularly challeng'd I hope for an Account very shortly and so take leave SIR Your Affectionate Friend JOHN TILLOTSON Lincolns-Inn Febr. 20. 1665. FINIS A REPLY TO M r. J. S. his 3 d APPENDIX Containing some Animadversions ON THE BOOK ENTITULED A RATIONAL ACCOUNT of the Grounds of Protestant Religion By Ed. Stillingfleet B. D. London Printed by H.C. for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard near the little North-door 1675. An Appendix to the Rule of Faith To his honoured Friend Mr. John Tillotson SIR AS soon as I understood your intentions to answer Mr. Serjeant I could not but rejoice on his behalf as well as on the truths and your own For I have that real kindness for him that I heartily wish him that reason and science he pretends to which I could not but despair of his attaining unless he were undeceived in that monstrous opinion he hath of himself and his undertakings And I knew no person more fit than you to let him understand the truth and himself together In which your performances have been so clear and satisfactory that I hope Mr. Sergeant in stead of another Letter of directions to his Answerer will write you one of thanks for the reason and kindness you have shewed him throughout your Book Unless it fares with you as it hath done with some other Adversaries of theirs that their civility hath been interpreted as an argument of their uncertainty and their own confidence cried up for a demonstration In which sense only I shall grant our Protestant Writers to build on uncertainties and Mr. White and Mr. Serjeant to be the great Demonstrators of this age If their own reason had been as severe as the censures at Rome against them they had saved us the labour of any answer and would have found out their own sophistry without a confutation But the least thing we can imagine by their excessive confidence is that they are deceived themselves and therefore it is a part of charity to them as well as justice to the truth to let the world see that big words are quite another thing from science and a strong presumption from a regular demonstration As to which no more need to have been said than what you have already done if Mr. Serjeant had not thought it an accession to the glory of his atchievements to lead two Pages of my Book in triumph after him I confess I was somewhat surprized to see a person who would be noted for his valour in assaulting Protestant Writers steal so behind the main bulk and design of my Book and when he had gotten two single Pages by themselves fall upon them with as much pomp and ostentation as if he had attack'd the whole And this must be noised abroad as an Answer to me by the same figure that his arguments are called demonstrations which is by an hyperbole unfit for any but such who never flag below the sphere of Science in their own judgments though they seem not to come near it in others Yet since Mr. Serjeant is not only pleased to concern himself so far as to answer that part of my Book relating to oral tradition but in most express terms to challenge me to reply to him he may now see assoon as I could get any
entertained as matters of faith His words are It being evident that we have but two ways of ordinary knowledg by acts of our soul or operations on our body that is by reason and experience the former of which belongs to Speculators or Doctors the second to Deliverers of what was received or Testifiers And this distinction he frequently admits not only in the present age of the Church but in any for the same reason will hold in all From hence I propose several Queries further to Mr. S. 1. If every one in the Church looked on himself as bound to believe just as the precedent age did whence came any to have particular opinions of their own For either the Church had delivered her sense in that case or not if not then tradition is no certain conveyer of the doctrine of Christ if she had then those who vented private speculations were Hereticks in so doing because they opposed that doctrine which the Church received from Christ and his Apostles If Mr. S. replies that private speculations are in such cases where there is no matter of faith at all he can never be able to help himself by that distinction in the case of his own Church for I demand whether is it a matter of faith that men ought to believe oral tradition infallible If not how can men ground their faith upon it If it be then either some are meer speculators in matters of faith or all who believe on the account of the Popes infallibility are Hereticks for so doing 2. If there were speculators in former ages as well as this whether did those men believe their own speculations or no If not then the Fathers were great Impostors who vented those speculations in the Church which they did not believe themselves And it is plain Mr. S. speaks of such opinions which the asserters of do firmly believe to be true And if they did then they look on themselves as bound to believe something which was not founded on the tradition of the Church and consequently did not own oral tradition as the rule of faith So that as many speculators as we find in the Churh so many testifiers we have against the infallibility of oral tradition 3. Whether those persons who did themselves believe those opinions to be true did not think themselves obliged to tell others they ought to believe them and consequently to deliver these as matters of faith to their children Let Mr. S. shew me any inconsequence in this but that it unavoidably follows upon his principles that they were bound to teach their Children what themselves received as the doctrine of Christ and that the obligation is in all respects equal as if they had believed these things on the account of oral tradition 4. If Children be obliged to believe what their Parents teach them for matters of faith then upon Mr. S's own concessions is not posterity bound to believe something which originally came not from Christ or his Apostles For it appears in this case that the first rise was from a private opinion of some Doctors of the Church but they believing these opinions themselves think themselves obliged to propagate them to others and by reason of their learning and authority these opinions may by degrees gain a general acceptance in the ruling part of the Church and all who believe them true think they ought to teach them their Children and Children they are to believe what their Parents teach them Thus from Mr. S's own principles things that never were delivered by Christ or his Apostles may come to be received as matters of faith in the present Church Thus the intelligent Reader needs no bodies help but Mr. S. to let him understand how Invocation of Saints Purgatory Transubstantiation c. though never delivered either by Christ or his Apostles may yet now be looked on as articles of faith and yet no age of the Church conspire to deceive another Either then Mr. S. must say there never were any private opinators or speculators in the Church as distinct from testifiers and then he unavoidably contradicts himself or he must deny that posterity is bound to believe what their fore-fathers delivered them as matters of faith which destroys the force of his whole demonstration Perhaps he will answer that Children are not bound to believe what barely their Parents or any other number of persons might deliver as matters of faith but what the whole Church of every age delivers This though the only thing to be said in the case yet is most unreasonable because it runs men upon inextricable difficulties in the way of their resolving faith For suppose any Children taught by their Parents what they are to believe Mr. S. must say they are not bound to believe them presently but to enquire whether they agree with the whole Church of that age first before they can be obliged to assent Which being an impossible task either for Children or men of age to find out in the way of oral tradition this way of resolving faith doth but offer a fairer pretence for infidelity For we see how impossible it is for Mr. S. to make it appear that their Church is agreed about the rule of faith for by his own confession the far greater number as speculators oppose the way asserted by him how much more difficult then must it needs be to find out what the sense of the whole essential Church is in all matters which Parents may teach their Children for doctrines of faith So that if Children are not bound to believe what their Parents teach them till they know they teach nothing but what the whole Church teaches it is the most compendious way to teach them they are not bound to believe at all But if this distinction be admitted as Mr. S. makes much use of it then it appears how errors may come into the Church at first under the notion of speculations and by degrees to be delivered as points of faith by which means those things may be received in the Church for such which were never delivered by Christ or his Apostles and yet no age conspire to deceive the next which was the thing to be shewed This is one way of shewing how errors may come into the Church without one ages conspiring to deceive the next but besides this there are several others I might insist upon but I shall mention only two more 1. Misinterpreting the sence of Scripture 2. Supposing it in the power of some part of the Church to oblige the whole in matters of faith For the first we are to consider that no imaginable account can be given either of the writing or universal reception of the Books of the New Testament if they were not designed for the preservation of the doctrine of Christ. And although it should be granted possible for the main and fundamental articles of Christian faith such as the Apostles Creed gives a summary account of to have been preserved by
the help of tradition yet unless we be extreamly ungratful we cannot but acknowledg that God hath infinitely better provided for us in not leaving the grounds of our Religion to the meer breath of the people or the care of Mothers instructing their Children but hath given us the certain records of all the doctrines and motives of faith preserved inviolably from the first ages of the Church And when the Church saw with what care God had provided for the means of faith oral tradition was little minded thence the memory of those other things not recorded in Scripture is wholly lost all the care was imployed in searching preserving and delivering these sacred Books to posterity To these the primitive Church still appeals these they plead for against all adversaries defending their authority explaining their sense vindicating them from all corruptions Tradition they rely not on any further than as a testimony of the truth of these records or to clear the sense of them from the perverse interpretation of those Hereticks who pretended another kind of tradition than what was in Scripture And when these were silenced all the disputes that arose in the Church concerning matters of faith was about the sense of these Books as is evident by the proceedings in the case of Arius and Pelagius Wherein tradition was only used as a means to clear the sense of the Scriptures but not at all as that which the faith of all was to be resolved into But when any thing was pleaded from tradition for which there was no ground in Scripture it was rejected with the same ease it was offered and such persons were plainly told this was not the Churches way if they had plain Scripture with the concurrent sense of Antiquity they might produce it and rely upon it So that the whole use of tradition in the primitive Church besides attesting the Books was to shew the unreasonableness of imposing senses on Scripture against the universal sense of the Church from the Apostles times But as long as men were men it was not avoidable but they must fall into different apprehensions of the meaning of the Scripture according to their different judgments prejudices learning and education And since they had all this apprehension that the Scripture contained all doctrines of faith thence as men judged of the sense of it they differed in their apprehension concerning matters of faith And thence errors and mistakes might easily come into the Church without one age conspiring to deceive the next Nay if it be possible for men to rely on tradition without Scripture this may easily be done for by that means they make a new rule of faith not known to the primitive Church and consequently that very assertion is an error in which the former age did not conspire to deceive the next And if these things be possible M. S's demonstration fails him for hereby a reasonable account is given how errors may come into a Church without one age conspiring to deceive another Again let me enquire of Mr. S. whether men may not believe it in the power of the ruling part of the Church to oblige the whole to an assent to the definitions of it To speak plainer is it not possible for men to believe the Pope and Council infallible in their decrees And I hope the Jesuits as little as Mr. S. loves them or they him may be a sufficient evidence of more than the bare possibility of this If they may believe this doth it not necessarily follow that they are bound to believe whatever they declare to be matter of faith Supposing then that Transubstantiation Supremacy Invocation of Saints were but pâ—ivate opinions before but are now defined by Pope and Council these men cannot but look on themselves as much obliged to believe them as if they had been delivered as matters of faith in every age since the Apostles times Is it now repugnant to common sense that this opinion should be believed or entertained in the Church if not why may not this opinion be generally received if it be so doth it not unavoidably follow that the faith of men must alter according to the Churches definitions And thus private opinions may be believed as articles of faith and corrupt practices be established as laudable pieces of devotion and yet no one age of the Church conspire to deceive another Thus I hope Mr. S. may see how far it is from being a self-evident principle that no error can come into the Church unless one age conspire to deceive the next in a matter of fact evident in a manner to the whole world Which is so wild an apprehension that I believe the Jesuits cannot entertain themselves without smiles to see their domestick adversaries expose themselves to contempt with so much confidence Thus I come to the reason I gave why there is no reason to believe that this is the present sense of the Roman Church My words are For I see the Roman Church asserts that things may be de fide in one age which were not in another at least Popes and Councils challenge this and this is the common doctrine maintained there and others are looked on as no members of their Church who assert the contrary but as persons at least meritoriously if not actually excommunicate Where then shall I satisfie my self what the sense of your Church is as to this particular Must I believe a very few persons whom the rest disown as heretical and seditious or ought I not rather to take the judgment of the greatest and most approved persons of that Church And these disown any such doctrine but assert that the Church may determine things de fide which were not before In answer to this Mr. S. begs leave to distinguish the words de fide which may either mean Christian faith or points of faith taught by Christ and then he grants 't is non-sense to say they can be in one age and not in another Or de fide may mean obligatory to be believed In this latter sense none I think saith he denies things may be de fide in one age and not in another in the former sense none holds it Upon which very triumphantly he concludes What 's now become of your difficulty I believe you are in some wonderment and think I elude it rather then answer it I shall endeavour to unperplex you I must confess it a fault of humane nature to admire things which men understand not on which account I cannot free my self from some temptation to that he calls wonderment but I am presently cured of it when I endeavour to reduce his distinction to reason For instead of explaining his terms he should have shewed how any thing can be obligatory to be believed in any age of the Church which was no point of faith taught by Christ which notwithstanding his endeavour to unperplex me is a thing as yet I apprehend not because I understand no obligation
made capable of this their obligation But we are not now enquiring what the obligation to believe the main points of faith is nor whether tradition be a self-evident rule but how there should be a new obligation to believe something self-evidently connected with the former points is beyond my capacity to understand And they must be vulgar understandings indeed that can rationally and connaturally be made capable of such an obligation For if it be self-evidently connected with the main points no one can believe the one without believing the other for nothing is self-evident but what a man assents to at the first apprehension of it and if he doth so how comes there a new obligation to believe it Is it possible to believe that any thing consists of parts and not believe that that whole is greater than any of those parts for this is a thing self-evidently connected with the nature of the whole But these are self-evident riddles as the former were unintelligible demonstrations And yet though these be rare Theories the application of them to the case of the Roman Church exceeds all the rest Whence saith he the Government of our Church is still justified to be sweet and according to right nature and yet forcible and efficacious Although I admire many things in Mr. S's Book yet I cannot say I do any thing more than this passage that because men are obliged to believe no implied points but such as are self-evidently connected with the main ones therefore the Government of the Roman Church is sweet and according to right nature c. Alas then how much have we been mistaken all this while that have charged her with imposing hard and unsufferable conditions of communion with her No she is so gentle and sweet that she requires nothing but the main points on the account of a self-evident rule and implied points by reason of self-evident connexion with the former I see Mr. S. if he will make good his word is the only person who is ever like to reconcile me with the Church of Rome For I assure you I never desire any better terms of communion with a Church than to have no main points of faith required from me to assent to but what are built on a self-evident rule nor any implied points but such as are self-evidently connected with the former And no work can be more easie than to convince me upon these grounds for all endeavors of proof are taken away by the things being said to be self-evident For the very offer of proof that they are so self-evidently proves they are not so For what ever is proved by somthing beside it self can never be said without a contradiction to be self-evident But not to tye up Mr. S. from his excellent faculty of proving if Mr. S. will prove to me that any of the points in difference between us as Transubstantiation Purgatory Supremacy of the Roman Church c. have any self-evident connexion with any main point of faith in the Apostles Creed I solemnly promise him to retract all I have writ against that Church so far shall I be from needing a new obligation to believe them But if these be so remote from self-evidence that they are plainly repugnant to sense and reason witness that self-evident doctrine of Transubstantiation what then must we think of Mr. S. Surely the least is that since his being a Roman Catholick his mind is strangely inlightned so far that those things are self-evident to him which are contradictions to the rest of the world But withal M. S. acquaints us with another mysterie which is how these points descended by a kind of tradition and yet confesses they were never thought of or reflected on by the generality till the Church took occasion to explain them Such a silent tradition doth very sutably follow the former self-evident connexion For he that can believe Transubstantiation ro be self-evident no wonder if he believes that to have been delivered by a constant Tradition which was never heard of from the Apostles times to these Now Mr. S. is pleased to return to me and draws up a fresh charge against me which is that I act like a Politician and would conquer them by first dividing them and making odious comparisons between two parties of Divines But to shew us how little they differ he distinguishes them as faithful and as private discoursers in the former notion he saith they all hold the same divinely constituted Church-Government and the same self-evident rule of faith but as private discoursers he acknowledges they differ in the explication of their belief I meddle not here with the Government of their Church which I have elsewhere proved to be far enough from being divinely constituted but with the rule of faith and the question is whether the infallibility of oral tradition be that self-evident rule which that Church proceeds on Yes saith Mt. S. they are all as faithful agreed in it but as discourses they differ about it Which in short is that all in the Church of Rome who are not of his opinion know not what they say and that they oppose that which they do really believe Which in plain English is that they are egregious dissemblers and prevaricators in Religion that they do intolerably flatter the Pope and present Church with loud declamations for their infallibility but they do really believe no such thing but resolve all into oral tradition But is not this an excellent agreement among them when Mr. White and his party not only disown the common doctrine of the infallibility of Pope and Councils but dispute against it as pernicious and destructive to Christian faith on the other side the far greater part of Romanists say there can be no certainty of faith unless there be an infallible divine testimony in the present Church and this lodged in Pope and Councils that those who endeavour to overthrow this are dangerous seditious heretical persons Accordingly their Books are censured at Rome their opinions disputed against and their persons condemned And yet all this while we must believe that these stick together like two smooth Marbles as faithful though they are knocked one against another as discoursers and that they perfectly agree in the same self-evident rule of faith when all their quarrels and contentions are about it and those managed with so great heat that heresie is charged of one side and Arch-heresie and undermining Religion on the other Doth he think we never heard of Mr. White 's Sonus Succinae nor of that Chapter in it where he saith that the doctrine of Pope and Councils infallibility tends to overthrow the certainty of Christian faith and that the propagating such a doctrine is a greater crime than burning Temples ravishing the sacred Virgins on the Altars trampling on the body of Christ or the sending the Turk or Antichrist into Christian Countreys Or doth he think we can believe that the Pope and Cardinals the Jesuites
take notice of what I have elsewhere said I am resolved to let him see I am not at all concerned about it I begin to understand him so well by this Appendix that I can give my self a reasonable account why he thought it not fit to meddle with any other part of my Book But if Mr. S. be resolved not to answer any of the testimonies I there produce unless I single them out and print them at the end of this Answer i. e. remove them from that evidence which attends them in the series of the discourse I can only say he is the most imperious answerer I have met with who is resolved never to deal with an adversary but on his own unreasonable terms Thus heartily wishing Mr. S's Science as great as his opinion of it and a good effect of our endeavours to promote the one by removing the other I am Sir Your affectionate friend and servant Edward Stillingfleet London June 28. 1665. FINIS Postscript SIR SInce the dispatch of the former Papers I have met with another Treatise wherein I find my self concerned written by the Author of Fiat Lux the Title whereof is Diaphanta I am afraid the Title affrights you for I assure you it is the most formidable thing in his whole Book But the man is a very modest man and hugely different from Mr. S's humor for he is so far from offering to demonstrate the grounds of faith that all he pretends to in the title of his Book is to excuse Catholick Religion against the opposition of several Adversaries What fault I pray hath the Catholick Religion committed that it must now come to be excused instead of being defended But when I look into that part which concerns my self I presently understand the meaning of it which is not to excuse Catholick Religion but themselves for not being able to defend it For he very ingeniously tells us that faith is firm and constant though all his talk for it be miserably weak i. e. he is sure they have an excellent Religion though he knows not what to say for it and their faith is a very good faith but it hath not yet had the good fortune to be understood by them For he acknowledges that as often as they dispute they are beyond the business so may any one believe who reads their late Books which is in effect to say there is no way left of disputing any longer with adversaries about their faith only they must believe it stoutly themselves but it is to no purpose to offer to defend it Nay it doth their faith a great deal of mischief for saith he in reading controversies we see not so much the nature of the faith as the wit of him who opposes or defends it From whence we may easily gather what unspeakable mischief they do their cause by writing for it By which expressions we may guess at what a low ebb the defence of their faith is among them for the way now taken to defend it is by disowning the defenders of it and by saying that they only vent their own opinions and though we confute them never so much yet their faith holds good still Was ever a good cause driven to such miserable shifts as these are especially among those who pretend to wit and learning One he saith T. C. vents a private opinion of his own and it is not a pin matter whether it stand or fall another he saith the same of I. S. a third of J.V.C. and yet for all this their religion is very firm and sure and they are all at perfect agreement about it Is this the victory over me Mr. S. mentions to be so easie a thing I see that by the same figure M. S. calls his way of arguing demonstration running out of the field shall be accounted conquering For I never saw any person do it more openly than this Author does For he plainly confesses that his Catholick Gentleman went quite besides his business that he built upon indefensible principles that his theological ratiocination was indeed pretty but too weak to hold And are not we hugely too blame if we do not cry up such mighty Conquerors as these are Truly Sir I expect the very same answer should be returned to your Book that Mr. S's argument is a pretty theological ratiocination and that your answer is not unwitty but though that way will not hold another will Thus when they are beaten off Infallibility they run to Tradition and when they are again beaten off Tradition then back again to Infallibility So that the short of all their answers is though such a one cannot defend our faith yet I can though I cannot yet the faith is firm and constant still I wonder what their Superiors think of this way of proceeding among them we should imagine if they be so weak as they say themselves they had much better keep them from appearing abroad and exposing their cause so ridiculously to contempt But it may be they think their faith is the better as well as their devotion for their ignorance and that it would be a mighty disparagement to their cause for such silly people to be able to defend it It is enough for them to admire it themselves and to say as their common people use to do though they cannot defend it yet there are some that can And although it may be no particulat person can do it yet their cause is able to defend it self But for all that I can see by such kind of answers the intention of them is to intreat us not to triumph over the weakness of their present Writers but to wait till the Cause it self thinks fit to write And when it doth so they may expect a further answer but it were a great piece of cruelty for us to hasten their ruine who fall so fast before us by each others Pens FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the white Heart in VVestminster-hall A Rational account of the grounds of Protestant Religion being a Vindication of the Lord-Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a Conference c. from the pretended Answer of T.C. folio Sermons preached upon several occasions with a discourse annexed concerning the true reasons of the sufferings of Christ wherein Crellius's Answer to Grotius is considered fol. Irenicum A Weapon-Salve for the Churches wounds in quarto Origines Sacrae or a Rational Account of the Grounds of Christian Faith as to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures and matters therein contained quarto A Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome and the hazard of Salvation in the Communion of it in Answer to some Papers of a revolted Protestant wherein a particular account is given of the Fanaticisms and Divisions of that Church octavo An Answer to several late Treatises occasioned by a Book entituled A Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in